Thad, Tuel...or Hoyer?

[Martifal]

I like Hoyer he learned from Brady, has a very strong work ethic which he learned from Brady. In the limited time he played last year he appeared decisive didn't hold onto the ball to long knew where he was going with it, that's a trait we haven't seen in a QB around here in a long time. To me it seemed like last year he was really catching on, if Buffalo has the opportunity they should grab him, I would take him over any of our backups.

[thewildrabbit]

Agreed.

 

Part of it is the bromance with Tuel, which is illogical and alarming at best and criminal at worst. More of it has to do with coddling EJ and not wanting to give him any competition. Last year, they brought in Kolb to start and to bring EJ along. It was a terrible mistake on several levels. Even before Kolb got predictably hurt twice, EJ was beating him out in camp.

 

This off season they decided to put all their proverbial eggs in on EJ and just flat refused to bring in any competition for him. So I doubt very much they will do it now.

 

Plus, they decided (Marrone and Whaley) that it was a better risk to have a guy that has played in the system a full year playing his second year in it over a player with possibly more talent or potential learning it from scratch. A theory I do not at all subscribe to personally. And if you're going to do or believe it, keep one guy and not both of your backups if they are not up to snuff.

 

The ONLY thing that really gives me confidence in all of this is that I think Whaley is a very smart guy and talent evaluator. He's pretty much betting his GM job that EJ is good enough. We all (most all) hope he is right. But that's a scary proposition.

When the Bills moved up to draft EJ I was very skeptical, and didn't like the move at all at that time. Even tho Mike Mayock had moved EJ to his #2 QB at that point. My thinking was, it was just a horrible year to draft any QB.

 

Then from a scouting type standpoint I can see why the Bills FO, staff fell in love with the guy. EJ actually cried when he was drafted by the Buffalo Bills, and in a good way as he wanted to be drafted by this team. A family guy, squeaky clean in a time when so many others are acting like immature dorks. Hard worker, and has every physical attribute that you could want in a pro NFL QB. Plus, Bruce Smith is his godfather.

 

EJ's drawbacks are a bit of a fragile psyche in terms of media scrutiny, and lack of experience in running a pro style complex NFL offense. Didn't call audibles, didn't work thru many progressive reads, didn't make a lot of pre snap reads. Plus, he is far from fully polished in his footwork, and mechanics. EJ comes across as lesser Cam Newton type, without all the bad baggage Newton had.

 

Still, I wasn't impressed with the kid until I watched him with the Bills run a 2 min drill in preseason, and then the regular season. EJ has shown flashes of brilliance at times,and even when under great duress. Like that second Jets game when the run game went into the ceramic convenience ...again. I now have full on man crush for EJ now, and realize it isn't him I'm fully concerned with anymore. I fully share Whaley's opinion that EJ is good enough. My greater concerns became the coaching, O line, and receiving corps. Whaley corrected some of those issues this off season. (Sorry to go off course talking about EJ so much.)

 

 

There is still the issue of the coaching staff, and will Hackett continue to run a hurry up, and punt offense like he did last year? Or will he build an offensive run game that can do something other then up the middle 70% of the time, and actually move the chains on its own? Watching the Bills drive right down the field, and then the run game get stone walled in the red zone against Carolina was a rehash of watching the same stuff from last year. Four run plays inside the Panthers 11 yard line, and no score.

 

When I watch other teams run perfect OG trap plays in that situation leaves me to think Hackett, and this O line isn't going to get it done this year. Then I read from camp reports that the offense is getting schooled by the Bills D line, it leaves me even more skeptical. I realize we still have three weeks of preseason games to go, and Glenn has yet to make a start. Still, I'm not very optimistic about the guard situation, or the protection schemes.